Category Archives: Time for Change

Dreams can be fun. They can also be heart-pounding scary. Others are hallucinations of sorts. Dreams where you are falling are supposed to be bad. Some are a wake up call and others should be given no heed at all. The worst is when you’re in the middle of a really good one………..BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Time to wake up.

I have had a dream. It wasn’t as awe-inspiring as Martin Luther King’s (whose speech I love and I wasn’t even born when he delivered it). On Saturday night I dreamt that Steve, my husband of 7 years, was gone. Not gone as in ‘not here anymore’ but gone as in ‘had left me’. Now I’m not a big dream analyst and I haven’t even Googled it to see what it might have meant (dreams are sometimes really not about what they’re about at all). To me it was clear that my subconscious was sending me a message through a megaphone.

It ticked right back to the beginning of this adventure. Not my journey through life. I love to talk but not that much. But here’s just a little history to unveil the mystery of me:

I am an almost-40 wife and mother of two boys. I am a teacher, sister and aunty.

I am a recovering perfectionist, perpetual clean freak and don’t like hats but wear many virtual ones.

My home is in South Australia and I love where I live.

I’m an ideas person until I pick the crap out of them and realise it won’t/can’t work long-term.

I suffer from the S.A.D.S (seasonal affective disorder/syndrome). Winter gives me the shits. I am a heat seeker that must have a vitamin D deficiency.

I LOVE to laugh and do nowhere near enough of it.

I stay away from bad news on TV. I’m a fairweather friend of news reports who finds it difficult to process all the bad things in the world that I can’t fix.

I am also a lover of words. English, specialising in children’s literature, was my major at University. I.T was my minor. I crave to write like a druggie craves the next fix.

I am a visual person too. My first love was Art, particularly Design. I wanted to ‘be a Graphic Designer’. Teaching was my second choice (yeah, I know-‘those who can’t do, teach’).

So I packed my bindle and off I set. I know it’s not a big deal but I am autodidactic by nature. Someone who seeks out new things to teach themselves. Free Little Words began on January 1st this year after I’d thought about starting one for nearly 12 months. It has been awesome, to say the least. I have learnt bucket loads and it won’t stop here (this isn’t a goodbye speech).

I am coming full-circle back to the dream nightmare now. Change is called for by me (these next two paragraphs are a bit whingey if you’d like to skip them). This blogging stuff takes a lot of time. We all know that. Anything worth doing can’t be completed in a jiffy. For me, I know I need to streamline the way I do things to ensure it takes as little time as possible while still doing a fantastic job. I don’t start something and not finish it to the best of my ability.

I don’t want to lose my husband (he assures me he’s not going anywhere) and I don’t want to take time away from my kids (after their bed time is the usual time reserved for all things bloggable). The other day I spent six hours looking for the right image for a post. I know, six hours. Ridiculous! Did I find it? No, because it didn’t exist. So I made it myself because it had to be right (I did say I was a recovering perfectionist). When I started my blog I did all my images myself. That was the time consuming part. Here’s the perfect example. I used to let the image do the talking as I wasn’t sure what to say. I pumped out 54 words on that post. Like when meeting a new friend, I was shy and hung back. Now I find it hard to keep under 400 words. All of my images have come from the internet now for quite some time but I have lost that sense of uniqueness. And all of that is just to complete my post. One must not forget the importance of the Reader, commenting, replying to comments, finding the next awesome blogger you wanna hang out with and please don’t let a negative word escape my lips about the time taken to complete awards.

So I’m going to go back to where I started, where the enjoyment was. The only difference this time is I’ll be drawing them not photographing. I love taking a line for a walk as you never know where it will take you. I’m going to take baby steps and do one a week.

I’ve got other plans I want to implement but I’ve word bashed everyone enough for now so I’ll leave it there.

The night club days might be over but this club I’ve joined doesn’t involve a hangover in the morning. For the bloggers who know the ‘me’ I have revealed here on WP the love for my boys will be back soon. Just for a short while it’s going to be all about me and you. If you’ve stopped in here for the first time I’d like if you’d check out a couple of older posts to see what normally goes on around these parts.

I was excited to join the ‘200 club’ this week thanks to those individuals recognising that I have/had written something worthy of reading. It left me posing more questions than having answers though. Soon after reaching this milestone I began thinking about the next one. How many followers would I like before I was happy? Then I read this post called The More at Linda G Hill’s blog. Reading this and other ‘direction arrows’ had me driving to an unknown destination and got me thinking….

Today I felt as if I was following the ‘signs’ but I didn’t know where I headed. I did a lot of thinking today, not much reading and no writing until now. I had to get a handle on all the new stuff that was going on in my head. Then Kira at Wrestling Life reminded me of another reason why I’m here. In her post about a type of Welsh poetry, I commented, ‘Words that don’t come out through my fingers end up coming out of my mouth. They’re the ones that get me in more trouble. That’s one of the reasons why I write.’

And finally there was this post from The Evolving Dad where he talked about not trying so hard and that some of the best posts are the best just because. The flow from the fingers and don’t involve as much thought and planning. I know someone who does this amazingly well. Her name is Kimberly and she was one of my first followers. Her poetry paints pictures, neither of which I can do. Words for JP is where she resides if you’d like to join her there.

And finally for tonight is a plea to all the you Fantasy readers out there. Charles over at Legends of Windemere has his first book on Amazon. You could go and have a look at his site first or go straight here to buy the book for Kindle or in paperback.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another post that is off-topic but is something I need to do before I can choose where it is I am going from here.

Once again I would like to send a big thankyou to each and every blogger who works tirelessly to ensure that their content is king (I’d send flowers but unlike a ‘thank you’ they would end up in the bin).

I’ll be playing catch up tomorrow on my reader and comments. I haven’t forgotten you!

An unexpected hiatus from the ring has ended! The gloves were off. Now they’re in full swing and packin’ a punch.

I have a game plan today. I’m facing a strong opponent and will probably do a little bit of dancing before any blows are landed but I’m gonna give it my best shot. Hopefully I’ll make it through each round.

Three days of no training can reek havoc with one’s routine. Lucky my sparring partner is back from his suspension in a hospital bed.

So the plan of attack looks something like this:

1. Catch up on my reader. 3 days worth-shouldn’t take long.

2. Approve and reply to comments. These people came to watch and saw a KO. Disappointing to say the least.

3. Check out some amazing bloggers who have stuck their head in for a quick look or to follow my journey to the title fight.

4. Nominate bloggers in an award post so they can hold the trophy aloft.

5. Complete 4 posts which will bring me up-to-date in my post-a-day promise to myself. I’ll back-date them later to fill in the gaps (I’ll sneak between my opponent’s legs if necessary).

So while the kids get to spend some quality time with their dad, I’ll be here fighting the good fight. Reconnecting, working on my game plan and giving blogging a good flogging. Better put, ‘Eye of the Tiger’ on ear-splittingly loud.

I’m not gonna tap out today. Can someone please have the smelling salts ready?

Disclaimer: I actually detest boxing and know very little about the sport.

Drag me off to solitary. Take my smartphone away. Bread and water is all I deserve! Can I please have a side order of love though?

Yesterday marked the first day in 77 that I did not post here on WordPress. Nothing really razzle-dazzle about that except for the fact that I intended to blog everyday for a year. I feel as if I have quickly gone back on a promise to myself.

On the upside my family and I had a lovely day. I was ever-present and shared the joy of my gorgeous neice turning 4.

I was still ‘around the place’ yesterday. I read and read and read. I commented when I felt the desire to. But I had this niggling feeling. Was I being the ever-present wallflower that I am in Facebook land-lurking in shadows like a spy in the lives of others? I was feeling the love but not sharing it!

How do I achieve the balance I am searching for? Another solution danced through my mind over the course of the day as I offered advice to another blogger who had asked for my opinion. Why can’t we take our own advice? Why do we have to hear it from our own mouths or through depressed keys to give voice to our own thoughts for our own sakes?

I’m going to keep my little tidbit to myself for the moment. I might need it while I’m in the hole. I’ll gladly share if I can just nibble away at it and be allowed to join the mainstream population again soon.

Whichever way you read it, I love you is the only part of the message that matters, yes?

Mixed messages are commonplace in our society. They are used in advertising campaigns, for the purpose of humour, daily conversations and many other reasons that I won’t go into now.

When I ventured into the realm of blogging I had no clue that it would have such a massive impact on my world. Mixed messages abounded on the topic of blogging-the best time to post, content, engagement, advertising…and the list goes on. I was overwhelmed to say the least and still am to an extent when I look at my stats.

For those of you who love a good stat overview:

Posts: 79

Views: 1772

Best ever views: 86

Comments: 257

Followers (Inc. publicize): 154

I don’t know if these are high, low or inbetween what a new blogger could possibly expect. To be completely honest, I don’t really care. All I truly care about is the good folk from across the world who have taken just a moment to see what I have to share.

For me that is the essence in all of this. I set out in my delapidated dinghy near-on 3 months ago wondering if I would find another soul on my journey who would give my thoughts a voice. Many of you have-you’ve made it all worthwhile.

Before I began I had made the decision to write and post daily. In retrospect this was unrealistic. If biting off more than one can chew is true here then I took a large chunk off an elephant. I quickly realised that it wasn’t just about posting. It was about reading, connecting, commenting and engaging. Regrets? No. Changes? Yes.

Daily posting without reading is not doable. Reading without posting or commenting would be okay if I didn’t feel a compulsion to express my thoughts creatively. A compromise is deemed the only solution.

So, it is with this goal in mind that I have made the only choice I see fit and turn this boat around and paddle like billy-o for dry land at knock off time on Fridays. I’ll still be around but I can focus on THE most important part of the week which is, of course, the weekend with my fellas-big and small x 2.

To my followers who hit that like button for every piece of writing I post, I do love you from the heart of my bottom. That’s because I sit on it to write and stillness is something I don’t do well normally. A warm, heartfelt…..

for those who take offence to any thought of my posterior.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone.
My family are off to my neice’s 4th birthday. After all, family comes first!

The light’s on but it might pay to check if anybody’s home. It seems that little revelations are par for the course today. I’m just not sure if they’re occuring inside a head that’s capable of light bulb moments today.

Thursdays seem to be a wall day for me. I don’t hit it. I can’t put my shoulder to it and break my way through. It flattens me to paper thin.

As I sit here in my unkempt home I know something’s off-kilter. Things around here normally reflect the fact that I’m pretty house proud. Not today. I don’t care. My youngest sits here playing with playdough while he eats it and we have a dialogue about why we shouldn’t eat it-just pretend to. Everyone’s happy. The sun is shining. My brain whizzes at its normal speed but it’s just not sure which direction it should be heading in.

You see, I’ve had an idea. I don’t think it’s a good day to have a bright idea. I’m not capable of processing it today but I’m not sure if I’ll remember it tomorrow. Maybe it’ll just be replaced with another idea because my grey matter seems to fire them off at regular intervals. This one’s another blog idea but that just makes my mind boggle because I spend quite a bit of time here already. Do I have anymore minutes in my day to spare? No. Can I leave my house unclean indefinitely? Um, no. So where do I pull more time from? I have NO idea!

I’ts similar when one of the boys has an idea. I try to focus on what their idea is but my mind always sneaks back to, ‘where are we going to find the time for that?’ or ‘when is that going to fit in?’ They’re always full of ideas and I adore the index finger in the air that accompanies their wonderful brainwaves. My little one’s idea of a good idea normally includes food or play. Pretty easy to manage. The big guy’s ideas normally involve going out or making stuff. A little more involved and a bit more time consuming. Still fairly easy to manipulate into a day.

There comes a time in life, where you feel so exhausted & are craving for somebody to inspire and motivate you. I'm going through the same time right now, I need YOU to hear me out. To advice me, to suggest me the Do's and DONT's -- as I share my life stories with you.